by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

MIAMI - About an hour before Kevin Durant would send the sort of statement not often seen in NBA regular-season play, the Oklahoma City Thunder star wasn't talking about the MVP race or the potential Finals rematch or anything remotely involving the game of basketball.

He was discussing the snow flurries in Atlanta, marveling at what it would be like to be stuck on icy freeways for hours upon end in a seemingly powerless state. Some three hours later, the cold-blooded Durant and his Thunder had put the Miami Heat through an ice storm of a different kind that yielded similar results.

The Heat were frozen solid on Wednesday night at American Airlines Arena, where a 112-95 loss on their home floor should be more than enough to send shivers down their two-time defending champion spines. Oklahoma City is now 14-5 since losing All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook to his latest knee surgery last month, and the complementary pieces who have grown in his absence showed yet again why this whole experience could make the Thunder even more dangerous when Westbrook returns in February.

Yet for all the justifiable hype coming in, this wasn't the superstar showdown that so many assumed it would be. There were a few minutes of dazzling back and forth late in the third quarter, with Durant and LeBron James trading circus shots to the amazement and appreciation of an otherwise-bewildered Heat crowd. Durant's edge in the MVP race certainly grew on this night, as he finished with 33 points (on 12-of-23 shooting), seven rebounds and five assists to James' 34 (12-of-20), three and three. There was even an MVP chant that came with the Heat trailing by 24 points in the middle of the fourth quarter that was puzzling because, well, it almost seemed as if the Heat faithful may have been honoring the visiting team's star.

It was, as Durant would later explain, a scene straight out of New York City's famed Rucker Park that even the most ardent of Heat fans had to appreciate.

"My teammates, they just gave me the ball and told me to go, to make a play," said Durant, who extended his streak of 30-plus point games to 12 against the team that downed the Thunder in the 2012 Finals. "(James) got hot for a quick second and I had to come and make an answer. But it was fun. I'm sure the fans got what they wanted to see, but we would rather play a team game."

Said James: "He was matching shots (and) keeping them up big and I was just trying to get us back in the game. It is a fun competition. It's been a while since I've been able to do something like that."

And therein lies the beauty of the league's top two players.

Entertaining though it may have been to slug it out with a fellow superstar, they didn't get their teams to this respective point by being singularly focused on scoring. So it was, then, that this mano-y-mano showdown only lasted so long. And in this season in which Durant's ability to be the rising tide that lift all boats is precisely why he may keep James from winning his fifth Maurice Podoloff trophy, he took part in something bigger than himself that was nothing short of astounding.

Having lost to the Heat six consecutive times coming in, the Thunder recovered from a 22-4 early deficit to lead by five at halftime. Oklahoma City hit 16 of 27 three-pointers (13 from Durant, Jeremy Lamb and Derek Fisher) and turned 21 forced turnovers into 25 points. And whether Heat coach Erik Spoelstra got it right when he said his team was "outclassed" or not, there was no disputing the fact that it was dominating performance.

"They beat us good," James said. "Outclassed? I don't know if I'm going to go that far, but they came in and beat us pretty good."

The Thunder did it mostly with players whom most of America has likely never heard of. And that, more than anything, spoke volumes about how dynamic this Thunder bunch has become.

In the wake of the James Harden trade, the Westbrook injuries and the continued success of all those draft picks that seem to fill each roster hole as it comes, this is who the Thunder are now. And as the Heat saw firsthand, it's a scary sight when it's right.

Lamb, who was taken 12th overall out of Connecticut by the Houston Rockets in 2012, is the second substitute for Harden after Kevin Martin departed for the Minnesota Timberwolves via free agency last summer. His rapid development is hardly unique, as young players such as point guard Reggie Jackson, center Steven Adams and even little-used forward Perry Jones (who started the second half in place of veteran big man Kendrick Perkins) have come along in ways that allowed Oklahoma City to remain in title contention.

There are still many lessons to be learned, though, and this was most certainly one of those. Being down 22-4 less than six minutes was more than enough to make this young group wilt, but there they were leading 55-50 after the halftime and having gotten there without any heavier-than-normal lifting from their leader (he had 16 points during that stretch, while Lamb - to cite one such young buck - had 13 of his 18 in the second quarter).

Durant has an uncanny ability to instill confidence in this wet-behind-the-ears group that surrounds him, and it's a testament to his quiet work as the leader of this group that so many of the younger talents have come along so quickly.

"I don't have a supporting cast," said Durant, who was also aided by Serge Ibaka's 22 points and eight rebounds as well as Derek Fisher's 15 points (five of five from three-point range). "We're all together. We're all in lead roles, I guess. I don't have a supporting cast. We're all the same."

Ironically, Durant referred to the horrific start as a "storm." Eventually, of course, the winds and the weather changed in a most dramatic way.

"We just had to stay strong through the storm you know," Durant said. "We didn't panic. We just try to stay together, and that's what we did. It was a good win. We came in and, like I said, we did a good job of weathering the storm and got a good win."